Ted Ligety took his almost accustomed lead after the first run in the second Giant Slalom of the season yet had to be content with second after a tremendous effort by Marcel Hirscher to win. Ligety has been in such dominating form in Giant Slalom that both Hirscher and third placed Fritz Dopfer were delighted to be sharing the podium with the American HEAD World Cup Rebel. Hirscher summed it up: “Ted is considered unbeatable in Austria so for me to beat him is a pretty big success. I think he will be back on Tuesday (the rescheduled Giant Slalom from Val d’Isere).”

New snow fell overnight in Beaver Creek and the aggressive nature of the snow forced many of the racers to take stock of the conditions. Ligety was no exception and while he said it was the same that it had been all weekend, it “was more aggressive than it had been for a GS.” In the eyes of head coach of the US Team, Sasha Rearick, this did not stop Ligety who he described as having skied “a fantastic first run and second run, too. I mean there were a couple little mistakes,” that may have let in the Austrian for his third world cup win.

Ligety is a supreme competitor and he knew that he had made mistakes that cost him what would have been a tenth World Cup win: “First run I was just trying to get used to the snow, it’s so aggressive up there, I think a lot of people were having problems with it,” before adding "I know exactly where I lost it, when I had a little bobble on the bottom...being second place is obviously good but I was really wanting to win more than anything."

With Ligety taking second, Kjetil Jansrud was in fourth after having made up two places on the second run. Aksel Lund Svindal continued his rich point scoring form in Beaver Creek this week that has seen him take an early lead in the Overall race ahead of another HEAD World Cup Rebel Didier Cuche in second with Bode Miller and Ted Ligety placing four and five at this early stage of the season.
The rematch is scheduled for Tuesday.